ERIC SUMNER Obituary (1955 – 2022) – Oldwick, NJ

SUMNER–Eric Eden Jr., 66, died on April 14 in his Oldwick, NJ home, surrounded by loved ones. Eric graduated from Newark Academy. He earned both his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard. Eric had a superb career working in many and various technical and entrepreneurial positions, making transformative contributions at every stop. Considered by his peers a world-class mind, he had an uncanny ability to rapidly absorb information, edit it, connect it, organize it, and put it to use. His real genius, however, was in identifying big problems and assembling teams of smart people in the right roles. And then letting them get to work, inspiring them with his focus, his consistency, his intelligence, his humor, and his ability (and willingness) to listen. His career focused largely on searching for patterns in large data for a variety of different applications. He rose quickly through the ranks at Bell Labs, being promoted regularly at two to three year intervals, ultimately becoming a Vice President. He then joined Lucent as a CTO before being recruited as CEO of DynamicSoft. Finally, Eric co-founded Lion Cave Capital. His vision was to create the best place to work; incidentally, one that mined large data in order to trade stocks algorithmically; also one that had no clients and no bureaucracy. Fifteen years later, Lion Cave is indeed the best place to work. It has no clients and no bureaucracy. And it has no meetings save one; Tuesday nights, when the whole company joins in smoking meat and drinking fine scotch. (See online obit for detail.) But much more important than his work, his skills, his genius: he was a mensch. A great and loyal friend, Eric always thought the best of, and for, others. Cheerful and optimistic, the glass was neither half full nor half empty for him; it was always full to the brim. Eric was a joy, and he took delight in many things: family excursions of all kinds, including fly fishing trips to Megantic; cooking in and dining out with friends and family; reading (deeply and widely) and writing (including two unpublished novels). His curiosity and warmth extended toward everyone with whom he came in contact. For Eric, humanitarian and charitable giving were both a joyous and serious responsibility. While Eric was an empiricist in his work, he was a humanist at his core. Amidst his countless career successes and innovations, Eric would tell you what gave him meaning was his love for his wife and for her daughters, who became his daughters. Eric is survived by his wife, Patricia Sumner; his daughters Lora Sumner, and Beth Pardilla; his son-in-law Ozzie Pardilla; his granddaughters Emily and Ava Pardilla; his sisters Hilary Langley and Erika Sumner; his brother Trevor Sumner; and countless friends and relatives. He was many things to many people, but all who knew him well were blessed to experience his singular delight in them. A memorial will be held in autumn. In lieu of flowers, please consider GiveDirectly, one of Eric’s favorite charities.